NICOLA Sturgeon has been urged to back a high-profile UK Government initiative aimed at tackling racial inequality in the public sector – after she was accused of "snubbing" it.
The First Minister was criticised after declining to take part in an “unprecedented” audit of how race affects the way people are treated by public services.
Now Scottish Labour’s shadow equalities secretary has written to Ms Sturgeon expressing her disappointment and calling on her to reverse the decision.
READ MORE: Scotland's economy continues to lag behind the rest of the UK, as critics take aim at SNP
Letters previously revealed Prime Minister Theresa May clashed with Ms Sturgeon over the issue.
She expressed her frustration after the First Minister said she was “unsure” about the merits of the scheme and questioned whether it was the “right approach” for Scotland.
Mrs May announced the UK Government would be launching an unprecedented audit of public services and race in 2016, shortly after taking office.
She ordered Whitehall departments to publish information showing the outcomes for people of different backgrounds in areas such as education, health and employment.
However, data from Scotland was not included in the mass of statistics later released by officials, as the Scottish Government did not take part.
READ MORE: Scotland's economy continues to lag behind the rest of the UK, as critics take aim at SNP
Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour’s shadow equalities secretary, has now written to Ms Sturgeon urging a rethink.
She wrote: “Refusal to take part in the race disparity audit would perhaps be understandable if the Scottish Government had similar or duplicate plans to undertake a full audit of the public sector workforce – but as I understand it, this is not the case.”
She added: “Eradicating racism and prejudice requires all parties and administrations to work jointly together.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said it chose not to be involved in the UK Government’s race disparity audit after discussions with stakeholders.
READ MORE: Scotland's economy continues to lag behind the rest of the UK, as critics take aim at SNP
He added: “Clearly no one should be denied opportunities because of their race and any barriers to accessing public services are unacceptable. That is why we have shown leadership by publishing a race equality framework and our race equality action plan sets out key actions we are taking to address race inequalities.”
He added: “We are confident that our own data gathering systems will better reflect Scotland’s circumstances and needs.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel